Use Cases

Elizabeth King
Kevin Middleton

Potential & Limitations of Monte Carlo Methods

  • Highly flexible
  • Few assumptions
  • Need to demonstrate validity for new applications

Case Studies

Taken directly from our own experiences

Automated counting of fruit fly eggs

Automated counting of fruit fly eggs

Turning flight in hummingbirds

Turning flight in hummingbirds

Turning flight in hummingbirds

Turning flight in hummingbirds

Mosaic evolution in Mesozoic birds

Mosaic evolution in Mesozoic birds

Mosaic evolution in Mesozoic birds

Candidate Genetic Loci in the DSPR

  • Power analysis via simulation of genetic mapping (see Quant Methods 1, 11-3)
  • Detecting multiallelism
  • Simulating a null for differences between allele frequencies

Multiallelism

Multiallelism

Allele Frequency Differences

Allele Frequency Differences

What questions do we ask when we use statistics?

  1. Parameter (point) estimation
    • Given a model, with unknown parameters (\(\theta_0\), \(\theta_1\), …, \(\theta_k\)), how to estimate values of those parameters?
  2. Interval estimation
    • How to quantify the uncertainty associated with parameter estimates?
  3. Hypothesis testing
    • How to test hypotheses about parameter estimates?